Ask a Norwegian supporter under the age of thirty what they remember about the country’s last World Cup appearance and you will usually get the same answer.
Nothing. They weren’t there.
Norway’s last World Cup match took place in June 1998. Some of the supporters preparing to watch Iraq on Tuesday had not yet been born. Others know France ’98 only through old highlights, family stories and grainy clips on YouTube.
Which raises an odd question.
How often does a country spend twenty-eight years trying to reach a World Cup only to arrive and immediately start talking about something else?
The World Cup is finally here. Norway is back. Erling Haaland is about to walk onto the biggest stage in football. Martin Ødegaard is preparing for the tournament his generation spent years chasing.
Yet one of the stories dominating the buildup has little to do with Iraq, tactics or football.
Instead, attention shifted toward Ståle Solbakken’s criticism of travel restrictions and what he described as hypocrisy surrounding the tournament.
The comments generated headlines. That much is unsurprising. World Cups have a habit of turning every remark into a story and every frustration into a debate.
Meanwhile, the football waits.
Iraq certainly is not spending much time worrying about Norwegian discussions over travel policy. Iraq sees an opponent standing between itself and three points. That reality arrives the moment the whistle blows.
Norway faces the same reality.
A good performance changes the atmosphere around the entire group. A poor performance changes it as well, only in a different direction. The tournament will not pause while commentators, supporters and television panels argue over issues away from the pitch.
There is an entire generation of Norwegian supporters who have never experienced a World Cup match involving their own country. They have watched Brazil, Germany, Argentina and France. They have watched other nations create memories that seemed permanently out of reach.
Now they finally get their own.
For them, this is not a return. It is a first experience.
The next thing Norway sees is Iraq. The next thing Norwegian supporters want to see is football.
After twenty-eight years, that does not feel like an unreasonable request.
The World Cup has returned. That should be the story.